Blue Jean Babies Blow Big Bucks on Denim

Good grief! $150 for a pair of jeans. You won’t catch me there, but then I am not part of the 68.4 percent of female shoppers aged 17 to 26 who say they typically spend between $50 and $150 on jeans. Holy cow, no wonder I can’t find jeans that fit. I still try to buy my jeans for $20 to $25. Am I old or smart? Hard to say. More than one in 10 of this age group — 12.5 percent — say they spend more than $150 on jeans. Like I said, “Holy cow!”

The survey was conducted for the Retail Advertising and Marketing Association (RAMA) by SLANT, a Chicago-based promotions company. RAMA is a division of the National Retail Federation.

Proving once again that I definitely am not part of this group, their favorite brand of jeans is 7 For All Mankind, a brand that I’ve never heard of. Gonna have to work on my hipness quotient right after I post this blog, walk the dogs and cook dinner.

Other top brands for these Generation Y shoppers are Diesel, Levis (Thank goodness for that, I´ve been wearing Levis since I was a kid.), Lucky and Gap.

One in three, or 30.9 percent, of these gals spend between $50 and $99 on a pair of jeans, and more than a quarter, 28.2 percent, spend less than $50 (my kind of gals).

The president of SLANT, Meredith Belloli, did point out something that made me feel better about all that money spent on jeans: “It’s not so much that Gen Y has a huge disposable income; it’s that they think jeans are worth the investment.” Yes, well, I´ve got to agree. Jeans are my daily uniform.

Almost half of survey respondents, 41.8 percent, said they shop for jeans at their favorite store — Gap or Old Navy. Other jeans-selling retailers favored by this group include department stores, for 29.1 percent; boutiques, for 7.3 percent; and discount stores, for 6.4 percent.

Tomorrow in Retail Strategies, read about the social habits of this marketing segment.